Killing spiders

I killed a spider. I try to make peace with them. If a spider is in the same room as me i'll ignore it or open a window and let it out. As a child I was told spiders will ignore you in the shower. However, a spider once jumped at my face while showering.

I still try to coexist peacefully, but to this day seeing a spider in the shower puts me on edge. This morning, a species I didn't recognize was way too close. I tossed everything in the bathroom at it. I missed about 10 throws until one finally injured it. I picked up windex spray thinking that would kill it. It didn't. I squished it with a shampoo bottle. It kept crawling. I turned the shower head on it. It was still crawling. I tossed more stuff and it finally died. You would expect peace, but I was taught early on not to take the life from creatures. I felt like a dick.

So as a personal question, how do you handle spiders? If one has to go, what would be your method for doing it humanely?

I like spiders. Jumping spiders in particular are so adorable, and though I don't find other species cute, I still like them. They're cool. That said, I'm also allergic to most spider venom. They give me HUGE welts that are really hot and painful to the touch, along with bowel distress. When I was young, I needed to go to the emergency room where they had to administer an EpiPen to ease the allergic reaction. Never had anaphylactic shock from it, thankfully.

With that out of the way, I try to put all spiders outside, aside from cellar spiders and jumping spiders. They can stay inside, as they are harmless (since they don't want to attack me) and eat other bugs that are arguably way creepier. Same with house centipedes, actually.

If I need to take a spider (or any other insect) outside, I get a jar, put it over them, and slip a piece of mail or sturdy paper underneath, then sort of bop or flick them into the jar. That includes spiders in the bathroom lmao. I'll put them in the jar, close it, and take them out when I'm done showering. I have accidentally murdered several spiders from forgetting about them in the jar, and that makes me sad :(

I honestly can't remember the last time I killed a spider. Unless they pose an immediate threat, I either leave them be or relocate them.

I leave them be in most cases. But, if one needs to go I hit it fast and hard (usually with the bottom of a flat, sturdy shoe or the like) so that it's over in an instant.

I kill spiders and insects. Not literally every time I see one, there's a combination of things that can make it not worth it to try to bother, but I probably kill bugs more than some people do and I have zero qualms in doing so.

Where I live, spiders are not dangerous. I simply take them with my hands and throw them out the window.

If I was living in India, Brazil or Australia, where everything can kill you, I would leave the house in tears ^^"

Normally I kill spiders.

Used to be afraid of them because of how dangerous they look. Now that I know that they prey on other more harmful pests (and rarely actually pose a threat to humans), they're my bros.

Ugh.. I really don't like most spiders. Small ones I can probably ignore unless they're too close to me, but most of the time I don't like them and will just spray stuff at them if I can. :x Sorry spiders, your best bet is hiding somewhere in a corner where I won't see you!

I don't think spiders mean to cause any harm, not where I live. I think they're pretty cool, and TBH I am quite fascinated by the way they put up their web homes. How do they make it all by themselves? How is the pattern so consistent? Yeah, I think spiders are very cool!

Retek said:

I don't think spiders mean to cause any harm, not where I live. I think they're pretty cool, and TBH I am quite fascinated by the way they put up their web homes. How do they make it all by themselves? How is the pattern so consistent? Yeah, I think spiders are very cool!

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Fun fact! If you see the classic spiral web, it's most likely an orb weaver species! Other spiders put down signal webs to indicate if there's prey. Also not so fun fact, depending on where you live, if you see a web close to the ground (like, not above 5ft) and it's a mess of webbing strewn everywhere it might be the web of a brown/black widow. So don't touch it!

Anyway, I adore spiders. All kinds, from little jumpers to Brown Recluse, to zipper weavers and trap door spiders. I've owned many as pets now but they've all been wild caught so their lifespans are unknown.

Remember everyone, spiders react and bite defensively! Not aggressively! And you're way too big to eat lol. Just check your shoes. :)

Fairy said:

Fun fact! If you see the classic spiral web, it's most likely an orb weaver species! Other spiders put down signal webs to indicate if there's prey. Also not so fun fact, depending on where you live, if you see a web close to the ground (like, not above 5ft) and it's a mess of webbing strewn everywhere it might be the web of a brown/black widow. So don't touch it!

Anyway, I adore spiders. All kinds, from little jumpers to Brown Recluse, to zipper weavers and trap door spiders. I've owned many as pets now but they've all been wild caught so their lifespans are unknown.

Remember everyone, spiders react and bite defensively! Not aggressively! And you're way too big to eat lol. Just check your shoes. :)

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Ooooo, that's some useful information! Thanks a lot! 😁

Mostly I grab them and set them out free outside my house.

don't kill them, put them in a cup and drop them outside!

Fairy said:

Fun fact! If you see the classic spiral web, it's most likely an orb weaver species!

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We once had an orb-weaver make her web right in front of our door. She was HUUUUGE and was missing two legs (one on each side), but we had to keep taking her web down in order to get out of the house. But for nearly a whole month, she was constantly put her web back up over night, and I'd occasionally see her trying to remake it during the afternoon. I nicknamed her Warmonger. Her webs were absolutely beautiful and enormous.

After about a month of this battle where I thought I'd never win, she gave up that spot (admittedly a good spot cuz there were a lot of juicy moths) and moved to our bay window. I loved opening the windows, but I left those closed so she could live in peace. She moved away somewhere a week later. I miss our battles, Warmonger. I hope you lived a full and happy life 🖤

Most of the spiders we get are harmless. Specifically some light colored ones and speckled brown and beige fat ones. I don't really do anything with them unless asked, then I put them outside.

Edit: THESE GUYS. They hang out in the woods and are so fucking fat and suddenly there: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araneus_diadematus

i leave them alone for the most part unless they start invading my personal spaces. @_@ they can stay outside...

Once a spider is seen in the room, it has to leave otherwise I'm not moving and if that means I'm crushing the thing to death then I'm going to crush it to death.

StCooler said:

Where I live, spiders are not dangerous. I simply take them with my hands and throw them out the window.

If I was living in India, Brazil or Australia, where everything can kill you, I would leave the house in tears ^^"

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Most of our spiders in Australia aren't actually particularly dangerous to humans. We only have about four species of spider that, allergies excluded, pose any serious threat to human beings and of those you're only really at any great risk of receiving a life-threatening bite from one of the funnel webs, in particularly the Sydney Funnel Web (but that literally only lives around Sydney). Mouse Spiders are comparably venomous but aren't encountered that frequently/are less aggressive and Redbacks are everywhere and potentially lethal, but the antivenin is readily available and a lot of people don't need it at all.

Our reputation for dangerous spiders primarily comes from us having a lot of large spiders - in particular huntsman and tarantula species. But, hilariously, these spiders pose no threat to people at all. We don't even have the biggest of those though! The giant huntsman from Laos and the goliath bird-eater from South America are the two biggest spiders (the former by leg span and the latter by mass).

I'm no araneologist of course though, and it's still always better to be safe than sorry (you really shouldn't be picking spiders up with your bare hands). It just always amuses me that out of the plethora of animals we have here that can easily kill or maim a person with a single sting or bite, it's the spiders - which are by-and-large harmless - that people from overseas always focus on.

Note: When I say harmless, I mean unlikely to kill you/do lasting harm. There's still a decent number of spiders that will make you wish you were dead for a few hours/days.

I never, ever purposefully kill spiders, I have too much respect for them... even if most terrify me and I go into a frenzy when there's a spider upon my person.

We have many, many, MANY spiders living in and around our house, including the dreaded orb weavers and huntsman spiders, so you kind of resign yourself to their presence. Orb weavers are the most scary to me because they are crab-like, somewhat aggressive/defensive, and their legs are like hooks, so they cling. >< Their webs never fail to amaze me, though!